6 rules to becoming a more positive leader

The energy in the room felt like a balloon with a pinhole. I stood looking at my team. I had just delivered a rant on how terrible it was that the parent company was taking more of our profit for their allocations.

Angry, frustrated and emotional, I looked at the team as they stared back at me like deer in headlights. I turned and bee-lined into my office and shut the door.

We had been growing double digits over the last two years, but everyone was miserable. I was miserable. I just stared at my computer thinking, “How did it get this way?”

You may have felt like this before; you may feel like it now. I have coached thousands of leaders who have experienced the exact same drain of negative energy and the terrible feeling in their stomachs that everything just got worse. The bottom line is, it doesn’t need to be this way.

Leadership comes in many forms, but to be a leader who is positive and empowers the team, you must think differently. In order for me to be that leader, I had to establish some rules to govern my behavior.

I have taught these rules to thousands of leaders whose changed mindset has resulted in better business results and an increase in company energy.

Rule 1: Negatives go up, not down

As a leader, you never send negative information down to your team. If you are feeling negative, discuss it with your CEO, manager, or coach. Don’t let the negative trickle down into your team. This will lead to a negative culture, and you will lose the respect of your team.